First Kiss
by BitAndBridle27
Summary: What if Castle and Beckett met under entirely different circumstances a few years after her mother's death? Would she even give him a chance? AU.


**Hello readers! So this was inspired by a video I saw which made me smile like a fool and think "Castle!" ( sourcefed first-kiss /). Go to it without the ****spaces! Anyways, basically it's a film student filming strangers' first kiss with each other and Caskett is paired together having never met before (suspend your disbelief and assume that Kate does not recognize Castle on-sight). With that being said, I proudly present this fic!**

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"Hi, I'm Rick." He held out his hand.

Kate Beckett froze for a minute. How could he be so calm about this? This Rick held out his hand like it was no big deal, what they were about to do. _Was it a big deal?_ A voice in her head suddenly countered every fearful, nervous thought she had been having about this.

Rick, with his gentle smile and outstretched hand, lifted a lot of weight off of her chest for no reason.

"Kate," she said. She placed delicate hand in his larger one. Neither shook though, they just stood there. His eyes were gorgeous. Blue was prettiest when it was an eye color in Kate's opinion.

"Nice to meet you, Kate," he said with another gentle smile.

"Likewise. So, what brings you here?"

The man before her shrugged, his broad shoulders rising up and creasing the plum button-down he was wearing before falling back into a more natural position.

"These kinds of things are perfect for a writer. You never know what kind of people you'll meet," he replied, "How about you?"

"My friend told me I should have fun and signed us both up. She already went." Kate realized how poor the answer sounded and looked down at her feet. She did want to be here, but she would never have come if Lanie had not threatened her with pointy tools used by medical examiners. She smiled a little more, raising her gaze again and finding that Rick was staring intently.

"You know, staring's a little creepy," she told him.

"Sorry." As he apologized, he squeezed her hand out of encouragement and Kate realized they had not stopped holding hands. Her eyes searched Rick's questioningly, what was happening here was much more than a short video by a college videographer. She dropped his hand and thought he moved to pick hers up again until deciding better of it.

Rick turned to the camera crew. "So do we just," he began, "you know, kiss?"

Kiss. She was here to kiss a complete stranger because Lanie thought it sounded fun. Kate felt her heart quicken. This was all for some random college video project? What was she doing here?

Rick must have gotten his answer because the split second before she made the decision to run, he had turned back to her and picked up her hand again.

"Hey," he said, "whenever you're ready, Kate."

The way he said her name was different. Even after four years, people still use her first name with sympathy attached to their voices. It was refreshing to hear a stranger say it without knowing what was attached to the name. Somehow, Kate felt that Rick would say her name specially even if he knew everything about her. How is it possible that people can meet and have a connection like the one she was feeling with Rick? Her breathing slowed down and she did not want to run for the door anymore. Maybe Lanie was right and this could be fun.

"Ever kissed a complete stranger before?" Kate asked him, moving a step closer.

"Have you?" Rick countered.

Kate looked away coyly and gave a slight smile, again moving a step closer.

They were inches from each other. Most people, Kate guessed, would have dived right in by now, But Rick was different. He studied her face: he was mapping the frown lines and the barely-there laugh lines and studying her eyes for some clue as to how to solve the mystery that was Kate. She swallowed and butterflies in her stomach flitted around. Her heart had started beating faster, but she was not sure if it was from nervousness or anticipation.

"So," she said quietly for nobody in the room but Rick, "being a writer, I expect you've already scene countless times."

"Yes," he said equally as quiet, "But none of those scenes had a woman quite like you, Kate." It was as if he was speaking from eons of experience. Maybe he was, maybe his studies of her had actually yielded something. All her studies had yielded was that she really wanted this man to kiss her for no logical reason.

Rick moved his free hand up to Kate's face and brushed her golden hair away from her eyes. Kate was sure her heart was pounding from anticipation now. He brought her closer, inches turned to centimeters and centimeters to millimeters. Their noses brushed, Kate smelled what she immediately deemed as "Rick's smell" for her olfactory.

"Kiss me, Rick," she murmured, surprising herself with the command.

He obliged very willingly. Gently, he brought his lips to hers and the kiss almost brought her to tears. Kate Beckett had kissed a lot of guys. More than she could count on her and Rick's hands and feet. However, in every kiss she had ever had, this one was actually real.

This man, this beautiful man she had met not six minutes ago, was really kissing her. Emotion poured through the dance their lips were creating. All the hurt she had been feeling came crashing through and all the healing he was willing to give soothed it away. Rick had no idea of what this woman's story was or how it brought her to this little studio in Manhattan, but he had synced to her in a way Kate did not think was possible.

A gentle caress of his tongue asked her for permission and she obliged, opening her mouth and allowing another dance to begin. The slide of his tongue, the touch of his lips, the feeling of one of his hands winding in her hair and the other pulling her closer to him allowed her to release everything that she had bottled up inside since the night her mother was found dead in that alleyway.

Kate was clinging to him even as the fiery passion of their first kiss started to fade to a simmer. Rick unwound his hand from her hair and moved it down to join the other near the small of her back. Their tongues came apart and their mouths closed. He kissed her chastely and then pulled back to stare at the beautiful woman in his arms.

Her cheeks glistened and reddened eyes stared back at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, his voice thick with the emotion he was feeling from her.

"Never better," she told him.

They were supposed to let go. They were supposed to thank the crew and wish the student good luck with his project. They were supposed to go back to their lives outside this studio's walls and never speak to one another again. They were supposed to do those things. But Kate had always been a rebel, and instead she just moved in closer and put her head on Rick's chest. Her arms tightened around him. Rick kissed her hair and leaned his chin on her head, holding her close.

Kate never wanted to move. Somehow, probably in record time, she had learned about a certain emotion that troubles people across all continents and, if you believe in that sort of stuff, all worlds. How could she leave now and go on with an empty and broken life?

Someone cleared their throat and said quietly, "We need to bring the next couple in Ms. Beckett, Mr. Castle."

Rick Castle sounded familiar but Kate could not, and did not feel like, thinking of where she had heard that name before.

"I'll walk you out," Rick said to Kate, taking her hand and letting their bodies drift apart.

She did not respond, but allowed herself to detach from Rick. She copied him when he thanked the crew and wished the student good luck with his project. She did not notice Lanie, who got up to ask her how it went but sat back down when she was that Kate was not alone. She followed Rick outside and onto the sidewalk, out in the world where they had to resume their lives.

Finally finding her voice, Kate looked up at Rick and said, "Thank you, Rick." She wished that her explanation could be deeper, but she was no wordsmith.

"Always," was his reply. It said everything. Kate had no idea how a six-letter word could be that powerful, but it was.

They did not speak when he let her hand slip from his own. They did not speak when she pulled a business card from her pocket. They did not speak when he read the card and then locked eyes with her for confirmation. They did not speak when she nodded and he smiled and tucked the card in his jacket pocket. And they did not speak when he gave her a chaste kiss and then turned and walked down the busy sidewalk of lower Manhattan.

"Who was that?" Lanie asked as she came to stand next to Kate and watch the writer walk away.

"He's the one."

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**I hope that last line didn't seem too OOC, it felt really natural to write. **

**I'm in a Creative Writing class (I'm a minor in it) right now so if you could please, please REVIEW so that I can apply everything to my writing in class and in the future!**


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